You are eating chicken being a Bhramin!

I remember watching an advertisement on TV of Canara Bank. The advertisement conveys the message of its transformation from old conservative bank to a new service oriented bank for its customers. In the advertisement a south Indian mother will be learning Panjabi because her Daughter-in-law, who is a Panjabi, will be coming home in few days time. It is shown that the mother is determined to learn the language and greets her Daughter-in-law in Panjabi at the airport on arrival. And the motto runs saying “We change for our loved ones”. This is one of the advertisements which best appeals to all the age groups across the country as Inter caste marriages in India are increasing. It looks simple of mother accepting a change and for some it looks like the Ideal Mother and Mother-in-law. But reality is pretty far from what’s been shown in the advertisement about the middle class south Indian Mother who has just witnessed an Inter caste marriage happening in her own family. I am pretty sure that most of the families with inter caste marriages call the advertisement as the heights of optimism, atleast at the initial stages of the marriage.

India is a developing nation. With increase in per capita income, GDP, economic activity, literacy levels, awareness about the world outside, disposable income and with many other constructive developments, the quality of living of Indians is being elevated to the next level. But one of the evils which still persist is the caste system. Castes in India are numerous and are still very prominent. Even the well educated young Indians believe in the caste system. Inter caste marriages are increasing but not all inter caste marriages are happy marriages. By one way or the other the couple should be ready to compromise. They need to make a trade off most of the times between being with the parents and marrying someone who is not his/her choice or going against the parents and marrying someone of his/her choice.

Origin of Caste System in India

Caste system in India had its roots five thousand years ago. Then the caste system was based on the colour of the skin. The lower castes are the one with the dark skinned. These are days of Aryans where the superstitions ruled than the science and technology. People used to assume the darkness as bad and brightness as good. Darkness at night leads to confusions and no one want to be in dark. As a result the dark skinned were labelled as lower class people and it was a sin to be born as a dark skinned.

The bases of formation of the caste system changed gradually. The type of work done by the individual determined his/her caste. There were four major castes accordingly, Bhramanas, Kshatriyas, Shudras and Vysyas.

Bhramanas job was to worship god. They were given a role of worshiping god for the common good of the country. Temple was their work place. There job was to worship god all the other caste respected them may be because of the fear they had of god. This very behaviour of the other castes towards Bhramanas made Bhramanas as the superior caste. The food habit of the caste was altered. All the Bhramans became vegetarian and started practicing it as a food habit. There was not much of the physical work to be done by this caste and hence they practised of having low calorie vegetarian food. The children in the caste were brought up with words like intelligence, faith and concentration.

Kshatriyas job was to guard the country against enemies. They were basically the soldiers and Kings who used to fight for the country. People in the caste were physically strong. The food that they had was a high calorie food so they were basically non vegetarians. The children in the caste were brought up with words like bravery, courage, sacrifice, and all the other macho words.

Shudras principal job was to cultivate crops needed for the country. They are basically the farmers. But the carpenters, cobblers, blacksmith and so on (each of it became a sub caste later) were included in the caste. The food habits of the caste was vegetarian and non vegetarian as well. The energy requirement was also high for the caste as they used to work in fields from morning till evening. The children in the caste were brought up with words like hard work and skills.

Vysyas were basically business people. Their job was to manage the trade aspects of the country. The caste was rich as they were dealing with the money. The food habits again here were vegetarian as the energy requirement was less. The children were brought with words like profit, loss, trade and business.

Based on the profession the food habits, the behaviour, the practices, the values and finally the culture of the castes was established. The child born in the respective castes was supposed to continue the profession of the caste. The compulsion of continuing the profession or work of the ancestors made the caste system relevant and prevailed for a long time.

But in today’s world the caste system should be out of time because the bhramans are in defence services, in farming, in business and are also worshipping god. Their profession now is not restricted to worshiping only. The food habits of the people in the caste have changed as per the energy requirements of the profession or work that they are into. The same is with Shudras, Vysyas and Kshatriyas.

Even today I hear some of the following comments and questions from my friends who are literate.

1. You are eating chicken being a Bhramin?

2. You are Gowda, and should be having farming land? Do you go back to agriculture after your studies?

3. Look at them. Its a intercaste marriage. She is a Christian and he is a Gowda. Sad right!

4. He is from a backward community and has still managed to graduate with flying colours. Fantastic right!

Well, I will be wonderstruck whenever I hear any of the above and many more and I wonder their level of literacy and awareness.

Caste system is one of the evils that still persist. The evil should be eradicated to remain in best interest of the developing nation. I think we should eradicate this evil from our house to start with. Always encourage any inter-caste marriages in the family, make elders and youngsters aware about the origin of our caste system and the repercussions that the evil has on the society and let youngsters to take their own decisions. Be the change you want to see and always see the good constructive changes.

Yo Yo its a New Year

Bye Bye 2008. Bye Bye to the financial meltdown, the pink slips, the highest fuel prices, the highest rate of inflation in the Indian history, the Mumbai terror attack and several other factors resulting in the application of brakes on the growth of economies around the world.

Welcome 2009!

On the night of 31^st of December 2008 we celebrated the end of the year passed and welcomed the year 2009. Resolutions were plenty to make but hard to keep. 31^st of December and the 1^st of January of every year are like a paradise. People around will be in a different world, may be on cloud nine, forgetting the sorrows  of the year passed and expecting more happiness and peace in the year to come.

The New Year eve is always the reason to celebrate. It starts on the night of 31^st of December and ends in the first week of January. On the days of celebrations we can see a new spirit in the people around, with dreams in their eyes of achieving the failed. After the celebrations it’s the same old day outside but a different date. Everything else remains the same as it was in the previous year. A cool drink in the store may cost you the same which is a rupee extra than the MRP and we still accept. The same old living place, office, friends and their silly pranks, hangouts, the sky, the water, the land, to be achieved, to be done and many others, there will not be any newness in the New Year.

 The year will not be new until the perspective of looking at the new day changes. To change the perspective, develop good habits. Habits which can change you to a new person from within. Be a person who, can challenge the world outside, can win against all odds, is competitive and can strive towards the desire tenaciously. Learn from the mistakes of the past; don’t let the mistakes to be a sin.           

Propel yourself to your dream destination. Enjoy your life to the fullest. Wish you all a happy and a wonderful year which is new. 

Saving Habits: A shield to the Country

Venkatesh rides his shining Hero Honda Splendor to his work with a great pride and satisfaction. He parks it in a shade and always keeps an eye on it while working. Bike is maintained neatly with periodic services and he wipes it with a cloth daily before coming to work. Venkatesh is 43 years old; he is the builder of the house. He earns from INR 250 to 300 as a daily wage. His friends and colleagues come walking with a bare foot or in Bicycles. He has to work hard all day for about 30 months to buy the motor bike with his little savings. According to him savings is important and improving his style of living as compared to his colleagues and friends who spend like there is no tomorrow. He says further that if a software engineer earning INR 20,000 a month and ends up spending all by the end of the month and he earning INR 9000 a month and saving INR 2000 by the end of the month is better placed financially compared to the software engineer.

Venkatesh is not alone most of the lower class, lower middle class, middle class, upper middle class  and even upper class families in India save. Lower class families may save in terms of Hundreds, lower middle class in thousands, middle class in ten thousands, upper middle class in lakhs and upper class in terms of ten lakhs and more.  But they all save; they cannot imagine a month or a year which goes without saving. The exactly opposite behaviour is exhibited by the people in the west.

Credit Cards in west are funding the consumption of its people. As a result most of the people will be on credit even before they earn. They earn to pay their credit card bills and when the consumption exceeds the earning, they fall into the cycle of paying just the minimum payment (a small percentage of their spending) with the rest being on high interest. On an average every American pays five to six credit card bills in a month. The culture of using credit cards has made most of the westerners unrestrained on spending. This very nature towards spending has made the savings irrelevant. Most of the people in west don’t make any compromise when it comes to satisfying their needs. Adding to it there is a free flow of money at lower interest rates (compared to the interest rates outside America). And inflation is under control because of the external demand for the currencies and the foreign policies of the government in the west. The credit card penetration in India is less as compared to America. Even if it is I don’t think majority of the Indians spend before we earn or unless we have the capacity to earn. 

The Indian culture is conservative compared to the culture in the west. Most of the Indian families will not have surplus money to spend. The way most of the children are brought up is by conditioning them as an when they ask for more. They are brought up such that they spend vigilantly. I saw a child of three year old walking along with his father. The child is reluctant to walk and asks himself to be carried. While the father having two chocolates with him shows the chocolates to the child and tells him that if the child walks with him till the nearest lamp post (that the child can see), he will be give him the chocolates. Child sees the post and he runs towards it. On reaching the lamp post father gives the chocolates to the child. Child tries hard to open the wrapper and after a couple of try he looks at his father. Now father in his soft voice tells the child that it is the street side and it’s not right eating here, so will go home, directs him towards home (which is visible to the child). The child agrees. Well I am sure most of us have been brought up like this.

Indian children are not given what they ask for readily from their parents/guardians. This makes the child to compromise in getting what the parents give in terms of time,quantity and several others. From the very tender age they are  made to learn to have patience, wait till they get the desired from the parents. Adolescence and adulthood brings changes in the behavior but the definition of the word “joy” will be limited to getting what he/she couldn’t get instantaneously before.

Compromises result in reduced spending. When we have a Maruti 800 we always look at upgrading. It will not be to Mercedes E-class directly. Even though we like owning one, we tend to make compromises looking at the responsibilities we have. We reduce on spending. Taking loan is quite common to meet any financial difficulties in the west and continue spending as normal as they are not ready to compromise on spending. In India its quite the other way round, since we have been brought up compromising, cutting on spending will not be much of a deviation from normal. It is easier for us to forego the present consumption for the bright future. 

The tendency to save among Indians is more. Whenever we have more than what is required we always save. This is inculcated in our culture through various good practices of our ancestors. Most of the time we had deficit in dealing with a situation than a surplus. So whenever we had surpluses we tend to save for future “May deficits” to come. Even Indian government and the central bank of the country encourages saving through its monetary and fiscal policies.

The world financial architecture is such that if one is gaining the other will be losing. The gain for one will always be from what others have lost. And if the lost is not from the savings but from the credit that they have borrowed from the bank then the whole economy will be in trouble because of the ripple effect of the default. In India since most of us will be on saving the whole economy is secured and insulated from the high magnitude of financial losses.

A shield is developed around India which is strong and difficult to penetrate. The shield helps in alienating most of the financial problems of the country. Thanks to our ancestors who have inculcated the practice of saving and for prioritizing the saving.     

   

Striking the Chord: Jerk or Gladiator

Campus recruitment is one of the driving factors which propels most of the students to join an institute. The placement from the perspective of a student is a platform which introduces him/her to the outside world. Research show that first job will not always be the best, but if it is, don't be a fool by following the herd.

Students see, interpret, understand and comment on the campus recruitment process differently. They say and think that its a game of luck, not logical, always ends up with a surprise, can't be predicted and several such trivial reasons to defend their decisions.

Luck always favors the Brave. Brave is one who makes lots of preparations on the subjects that he has studied, but not one who goes to an process with out making it. But the strange thing is if a person gets selected without any preparations, he will be the hero. Hero because he has made it even without studying anything and question that people will have in their minds are "If he studies then, god knows sky is the Limit?". Well that Jerk has made it because he has managed to strike the chord with the interviewer.

Striking Chord needs tremendous amount of intellect, even more amount of common sense and fair amount of subject knowledge (which you can apply logically). Presence of mind is one factor which really puts you in front of everyone else. It helps in understanding the persons (Interviewers) in less time possible and have words and sentences customized accordingly. Interviewers compare one candidate with the other most of the time. The difference that they look at are very subtle. The differences can be irrelevant for students but its relevant for them and their organization. 

Speculators are not served anywhere in the society, same is the case in speculating questions that can come in an interview. Preparations will be relevant to the interview only when you know your competitive edge, your strengths and your weakness and make preparations accordingly. Capitalize on your strengths and make all efforts possible so that the questions asked are in your comfort zone. 

Current economic situation is no different from what it was for Maximus (Character in "Gladiator") in Rome, always tackle the situations as a Gladiator, being ready for anything and everything, with a strong will power, patience, anticipation, preparation, optimism, thirst for success and sticking on to your values can take a person long way.

There are plenty of warriors who have already fought and are alive. Some of them are Jerks and others Gladiators. Jerks are just alive and looking for luck again in the battles to come, while Gladiators are enjoying by remembering the witty battles they had and are fearless and confident in winning future battles.